Summary of Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" The Grapes of Wrath is a story about the Joad family and their 1800 mile journey to the supposedly job plentiful California. The family in the beginning of the book were sharecroppers in Oklahoma and were soon thrown off their land by the bank. There had been a long drought and the family were not making enough profit to keep the land. The trip to California begins the Joad family which includes: Grandpa, Pa, Tom, Noah, Rose of Sharon, Ruthie and Winfield, Uncle John, Al, Ma, and Tom who has just got out of jail brings along a former preacher Jim Casey. They buy a used tr